Monday, November 28, 2011

Snowflake Email from the Defunct Adjunct.

The following email arrived in my inbox this morning. Despite my admonitions to my students that email should be treated as a formal mode of communication, it lacked any salutation (Dear Professor, etc.). But, given the content, I guess that's not surprising.

I'm having difficulty finding the readings for this week to do my assignment. Are they not posted on the class website?


Thanks,
Snowflake.

My reply:

Snowflake,


The readings are posted in exactly the same place that they always are: in the section of the class website titled "Course Readings."


To be quite honest, that you are unaware of this fact in Week 14 of the course suggests to me that you have not done most of the reading for this class. Had you actually attended more than one or two class meetings this semester, you might have a better idea of where to find the class readings, because at the end of each lesson I navigate to the Course Readings page and go over the texts that we will be reading for the following class.


Defunct Adjunct

I'm never sure whether to be astounded or simply grateful when students go out of their way to actually tell me that they have been blowing off the class. I should be grateful, I suppose; it makes assigning grades so much easier.

3 comments:

  1. Ha ha! You missed a serious opportunity to fuck with that student.

    My response:

    "They're posted where they've always been posted since the first week of class!" To that I would add a wee smiley face.

    The ensuing conversation could get interesting, if the student has balls enough to reply.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're right, I should have been more cryptic in my reply. When the email arrived, though, I had just gotten out of bed, and was more exasperated than amused.

    What's even more eye-rolling is that, after my somewhat snarky response, the student emailed me back saying nothing more than "Thanks. I guess I was looking in the wrong place." No apparent concern about the fact that she has attended 2 out of 13 class meetings so far this semester (it's a once-a-week class).

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.